FlightCar Opens at LAX

Backed by the founders of Airbnb, Reddit and Ryan Seacrest, FlightCar is now serving Los Angeles International Airport, the nation’s second largest airport. This peer-to-peer car-sharing startup allows travelers to rent out their vehicles in exchange for free parking, a car wash, shuttle service and the opportunity to earn up to $10 per day.

With high-volume cross traffic between its three locations (Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston), FlightCar’s founders see the potential to double its total business volume.

According to Co-Founder and CEO Rujul Zaparde, customers must take the LAX shuttle service from the terminals to Lot C. There, a FlightCar attendant will pick them up in a Lincoln Town Car and drive them to FlightCar’s lot, which is about four minutes from the airport.

Incoming travelers will save an average of 50%-70% off conventional car rentals and an additional 20% off competing car-sharing rates, according to FlightCar. In addition, FlightCar is offering a new promotion: customers listing in one location will also receive an additional 20% discount to rent a car share in another of FlightCar’s locations.

"FlightCar incorporates a level of automation and technology that the conventional $11 billion car rental industry has been slow for decades to develop,” says Zaparde. “Our innovations are making car rental affordable and fair again.”

The Los Angeles location will be the startup’s largest location, with capacity to hold over 110 parked cars and a converted warehouse building for restroom facilities, staff use and storage, says FlightCar. Plus, a car wash will be located onsite. In comparison, the Boston location has around 45 parking spaces and San Francisco has about 100 spaces, says Zaparde.

As in San Francisco and Boston, the complimentary town car service will continue to be provided by local independent ground transportation companies, now managed by an automation platform integrated with FlightCar’s new mobile web app.

Once customers land at LAX, this app automatically dispatches a FlightCar driver to pick them up. Customers can call the specific driver or even watch the location of the driver as he or she approaches Lot C.

Today’s conference call was the debutant ball for Hertz’s new CEO, in which he set the company’s direction on regaining market share, fixing Dollar and Thrifty, the threat from Uber, Hertz’s exit from carsharing, prepaid rentals and more.